University Committee Meeting Minutes 2026-03-23

Minutes for March 23, 2026

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Chui, de Leon, Jones, Kendall, Mathieu

Others present: Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Genevieve Lambert, Julie Scharm

Chair Annie Jones called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.

Paul Peppard, chair of the RecWell Advisory Board and Ruth Vater, Chief Business Office for University Recreation and Wellbeing said there continues to be strong and growing engagement with facilities and programs offered by RecWell. The Bakke and Nic combined for over 2 million visits. The Advisory Board also reviews and approves grants for students. In the future, there is work to secure RecWell space in the new Kellner facility for athletics.

Kendall motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c)(f) and (g) to discuss waivers and committee appointments and to confer with legal counsel regarding litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved at 1:20 pm. One tenure clock extension was approved.

Jones motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 2:06 pm.

The minutes from March 16, 2026, meeting were approved with revisions.

The University Committee discussed the senate agenda. They will move forward with an automatic consent item to correct the faculty start date in the 2027-2028 academic calendar.

Alisha Latham, Allison Breitzmann and Genevieve Lambert from Associated Students of Madison brought forward a proposal to allow serving as an election official for in person absentee voting as an excused absence from classes. Early in person absentee voting starts 2 weeks prior to election day. The University Committee suggested some changes to the proposal.

Dean Soyeon Shim and Associate Dean Kristin Eschenfelder discussed a new working group to support faculty, staff and students as AI users. There are many things happening on campus in this space, but they are not being well coordinated. Ethics and responsibility are an important part of learning how to use AI. Didier Contis, CIO, has been collecting information from peers, and the group hopes to leverage what is learned from other campuses. They are planning to develop a framework as a way to think abut AI. The UC indicated they did not see the arts included in the way AI has been framed for this project.

Jones adjourned the meeting at 4:08 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty